Fluidity in Reporting Gender Identity Labels in a Sample of Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents and Young Adults, Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana, 2017-2019.
Sponsor
This study was supported by a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award (K01MD016813) and a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant funded through an Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (U19HD089886).
Published In
Public Health Reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974)
Document Type
Citation
Publication Date
1-29-2024
Abstract
Objectives: Treating gender identity as a fixed characteristic may contribute to considerable misclassification and hinder accurate characterization of health inequities and the design of effective preventive interventions for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) adolescents and young adults. We examined changes in how an ethnically and racially diverse sample of TGD adolescents and young adults reported their gender identity over time, the implications of this fluidity on public health, and the potential effects of misclassification of gender identity. Methods: We recruited 235 TGD adolescents and young adults (aged 15-24 y) in Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana, from May 2017 through August 2019 to participate in an HIV intervention study. We asked participants to self-report their gender identity and sex assigned at birth every 4 months for 24 months. We used a quantitative content analysis framework to catalog changes in responses over time and classified the changes into 3 main patterns: consistent, fluctuating, and moving in 1 direction. We then calculated the distribution of gender identity labels at baseline (initial assessment) and 12 and 24 months and described the overall sample by age, race, ethnicity, and study site. Results: Of 235 TGD participants, 162 (69%) were from Los Angeles, 89 (38%) were Latinx, and 80 (34%) were non-Latinx Black or African American. Changes in self-reported gender identity were common (n = 181; 77%); in fact, 39 (17%) changed gender identities more than twice. More than 50% (n = 131; 56%) showed a fluctuating pattern. Conclusions: Gender identity labels varied over time, suggesting that misclassification may occur if data from a single time point are used to define gender identity. Our study lays the foundation for launching studies to elucidate the associations between shifting gender identities and health outcomes.
Rights
© 2024, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1177/00333549231223922
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41659
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation Details
Ocasio, M. A., Fernandez, M. I., Ward, D. H., Lightfoot, M., Swendeman, D., & Harper, G. W. (2024). Fluidity in Reporting Gender Identity Labels in a Sample of Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents and Young Adults, Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana, 2017-2019. Public Health Reports, 00333549231223922.